Preventing Freeze Breaks at Your Outside Faucets this Fall

By
Advanced Home Services
|October 26, 2015

One of the most common repairs we make at the beginning of spring involves repairing outdoor faucets. Outdoor faucets can easily crack or break away from the wall in the wintertime as temperatures fall, but this is largely preventable in many cases. Are your faucets protected from freezing temperatures? Take the time in the fall to protect your faucets from wintertime damages and save yourself a lot of hassle for the following year.

Shut off the water to the outside only

Every home has a main water shutoff valve which plumbers use while repairing your pipes and which you can use if a pipe bursts in your home. In addition, there are localized water shutoff valves for many individual fixtures and appliances, including one that shuts off the water to the outside faucets only. This may be located in a garage or basement. Simply turn the handle to shut off the water to the outdoors, and you can leave it off all winter.

Disconnect hoses

Be sure to drain garden hoses completely before wrapping them up and storing them for the winter. An easy way to do this is to use a spray nozzle to drain the hose of any remaining water. If you plan to leave the hose in a shed or another unheated area, it must be drained completely in order to prevent tearing. Water expands when it freezes, so you may damage your hose if you skip this step.

Drain the Faucets

This is the one step that many homeowners neglect. Don’t skip this important part of the process! Open up the outdoor spigot and allow it to drain completely so there is no water remaining. This stops freezing water from expanding in the faucet and forcing it to break from the wall.